Elder statesman and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, at the weekend said it was too risky for President Jonathan to visit Chibok when over 200 school girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in April.
Over 200 students were abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok in Borno State in April this year. Civil right groups and the international community had urged the federal government to rescue the girls who are still in captivity.
President Jonathan did not visit the school, leading to more criticism of his administration.
But Alhaji Tanko Yakasai said in the popular Radio Nigeria Kaduna Hausa programme, “Hannu da Yawa” monitored in Kaduna Saturday that soldiers were the right people to be sent to that town and not the president.
He said: “Why I think the president’s decision not to visit the area is not bad is because we were all aware of the deteriorating level of insecurity in that part of the country. We all know it was too risky for the president to visit Chibok at that time. The president is not a soldier, soldiers are the people that should be sent there. If I was the president and such an incident occurred, the right thing for me to do was to send soldiers and to be frank, our soldiers are doing their best. We are hearing on radio and reading on newspapers how soldiers are being killed but yet they are doing their best. I don’t know what is happening, the Minister of Defence, Ali Gusau, is a northerner, the National Security Adviser is a northerner, the Inspector General of Police is northerner, the Chief of Defence Staff is also a northerner.
“All Nigerian soldiers are under his order, if all these people cannot address the problem how would it be easy for the president to do it? Don’t forget that suicide bombers are now experts, so what will happen if they ambushed the president and something bad happened to him? Do you think his people will accept that? Except if people want the country to return to the Niger Delta militants era.”
On Boko Haram, Alhaji Yakasai said to end the crisis, serious measures must be taken.
“Could you imagine that today we are talking of female suicide bombers when we all know in history that females are known to be shy and peace loving? But today, a girl of age 13 was caught with bombs, some have detonated their bombs which killed many people in Kano. This is why it’s always advisable to tackle such a problem at the early stage before its get out of hand,” he said.
The elder statesman further lamented the plea by Borno elders for the government to withdraw soldiers from the area, saying it is a wrong decision. He called on Nigerians to continue advising government on ways to end the killings in the region as he appealed to Muslims and Christians to continue praying for the cooperate existence of the country.
Source: Daily Trust
